Speaking about the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 in a podcast, Infinity Ward Community Manager Rob "fourzerotwo" Bowling dropped a bombshell that has the die-hard PC gamers reeling: Not only will Modern Warfare 2 not support user-created mods, but the game will not support dedicated servers for multiplayer - instead, the PC version will use the same peer-to-peer matchmaking formula of its console brethren.

"The team's focusing on having it very equal on every platform," said Bowling, and it's true that lack of a traditional PC server browser - where players are able to sort dedicated third-party servers by gametype/map/players/ping/etc. and choose which one they want to join - has hardly crippled the popular console versions of the first Modern Warfare. In theory, the "console" archetype simply distributes the hosting load to the player with the best connection - and should they drop, it smoothly finds another host who can continue the match.

Predictably, this change has PC gamers going nuts, sparking some Modern Warfare of their very own. Also predictably, there's an online petition up asking Infinity Ward to reconsider the decision, which at last count is approaching an impressive 100,000 signatures. DICE's KM Troedsson, Executive Producer of the Battlefield series, fired back at Infinity Ward's decision via his Twitter account: "Dedicated servers FTW. What ever secures a better online experience is a given for us."

At first glance, this seemed to be - and on some level, continues to seem to be - a classic example of "They Changed It, Now It Sucks." I could understand the furor over the lack of mods, since mods are always fun, but - of all things - complaining because we're not using traditional server technology? Are all FPS games going to have to have a server browser from now until the end of time? What happens when genuinely better tech comes along?

Let's face the music, PC gamers: Server browsers are usually clunky and unintuitive. In trying to teach a (non-PC-gaming) friend how to play TF2, the first twenty or so minutes were just spent on how to sort through and select a server. I know that we PC gamers like to think of ourselves as an exclusive little club of special kids who hold high reign above those console lowlifes, but really? Are people really complaining about a more easily accessible game with modern matchmaking technology?

I was about to conclude with something along the lines of "At least the StarCraft LAN complainers actually had at least one valid point," but then PC Gamer's Tim Edwards threw his hat into the ring. The two incontrovertible points there seem to be "they make moderation easier to enforce" (as long as the players providing the servers are dedicated) and "they create communities." Even then: It might be true that they create little insular communities (even if I'd be willing to bet most gamers just pick servers primarily based on map/ping/how full they are), but couldn't one argue that Infinity Ward is simply trying to make one larger community?

In the end, though, this is just sound and fury, signifying nothing. Infinity Ward will probably not be swayed, Modern Warfare 2 will come out as planned, everyone who hemmed and hawed over this will still buy the game (though they'll still complain) and it will sell a hojillion bazillion copies.

Update:Or maybe not. Quoth the very same Bowler, in response to the controversy: "Definitely made a big wave, and the response will not be ignored. I'll ensure everyone at IW sees the petitions and responses to it."

Maybe we dont want forced match making? We dont want all these things that console owners love and need, its running though steam anyway so why get rid of dedicated severs? Isnt steam all about connecting more and less of playing with random dudes then moving on. In my favourites box I have 5 severs for counter strike alone, 3 of those are mods I enjoy, one is my clans sever and the other is a sever with a great regular playerbase.

No I'm not feeling like I'm in a "little special club of special kids", I genuinely bloody prefer dedicated servers, after playing the likes of DoW 2 mess of a matchmaking and all those games with quickmatches which screw me over.I'm just more inclined to the manual, "do it yourself" ethos, accessible is one thing, but taking away choice is another thing I'm not loving, if we can have dedicated servers, but the devs can't be arsed to change one friggin thing for the PC port then I deserve to be pissed off.

I completely agree with what you said. Newbies find it hard to grasp the current day servers. I tried to teach my dad how to use Battlefield 2 online. Needless to say, he never really got the hang of it.

well you can say goodbye to any type of competitions, playing with freinds, and any mods with keep the game alive (witch usually keeps people playing the game), im sorry but what were they thinking when they came up with this. (sorry for the small rant, i have restrained myself from making it longer.)

i wasnt buyng the game anyway, but i can still complain incase this idea catches on for other pc games.

zidine100:well you can say goodbye to any type of competitions, playing with freinds, and any mods with keep the game alive (witch usually keeps people playing the game), im sorry but what were they thinking when they came up with this. (sorry for the small rant, i have restrained myself from making it longer.)

Last I checked, match making didn't workout well for me. I either get stuck with bad players and I completly decimate them, or I get stuck with people who happen to know where I am and when I last had icecream. I understand why they want to do it so that the host doesn't leave midgame and end the game right there, but why don't they just do that with the consoles and leave the PC to the choice of IW servers or dedicated servers.

You just click the filters for locked games, full games and high-ping games and press search, how hard is it to do that?

This is because you are a PC gamer, and you are accustomed to doing these things. You (and I) are hardwired to do these things, just as we are hardwired to moving with a mouse and keyboard as intuitively as, say, walking.

What? What??? Seriously, what the hell is wrong with them. Maybe I want to choose which map I play. Maybe I want to choose a different server because the one I'm on has unfair teams or is full of pros or full of noobs.

Edit: One more reason not to buy the game, which I wouldn't have done anyways. Seems like Activision has set itself the goal to become the most hated publisher on earth and is willingly alienating the fanbase by raising prices and doing stuff like that(maybe IW made that decision by themselves, but I doubt the publisher hasn't at least agreed, if not pushed them to leave it out).

Zac_Dai:If you can't use a server browser you probably shouldn't even be using a PC.

And responses like this is why it's very, very hard to feel sorry for PC gamers. I gave up trying when they start trying to tell me that console gaming is a "second-rate experience". Rather have twelve-year old screechers than elitist cunts, myself.

You just click the filters for locked games, full games and high-ping games and press search, how hard is it to do that?

This is because you are a PC gamer, and you are accustomed to doing these things. You (and I) are hardwired to do these things, just as we are hardwired to moving with a mouse and keyboard as intuitively as, say, walking.

It's still a pretty massive obstacle when it comes to accessibility.

Seriously. It's all about this. If I'd never played a FPS before, would you expect me to know what ping is? Why is more of it a good thing? Why are you calling me a "noob"? Why is noone helping me? Well, I guess I won't bother with this, I'll go back and not help fund more games.

Also, I've just had a thought - if Console gamers had to put up withthe quagmire of server selection, we'd be told to suck it up and deal with it. Why is it not OK to do it the other way round?

Slow to post ah this was on the wire sunday and proberly the bigest news in pc gaming this month.

PC gaming and console gaming are diffrent things, communitys work diffrently due to the tools they had to start with. Pc had servers and it was a pain to read out ip's on voip so they joined togeather and go to there fav servers to play and console gamings got friend lists with a join butto.

You just click the filters for locked games, full games and high-ping games and press search, how hard is it to do that?

This is because you are a PC gamer, and you are accustomed to doing these things. You (and I) are hardwired to do these things, just as we are hardwired to moving with a mouse and keyboard as intuitively as, say, walking.

It's still a pretty massive obstacle when it comes to accessibility.

Then have an an optional quick-match system, and keep the server browser in place for people who can use it. Taking out something that has been an integral part of PC gaming for many years, simply in the name of making things more accessible, is, IMO, a grave mistake.

If you cant figure out how to use a server browser or sort a list you have no reason even using a computer. If you cant do either of these you are computer illiterate and need to go take classes. You are more likely prone to doing more harm to the computer then good and should go pick up a console controller where you can do no damage.

Why are the editors around here such apologists to these corporations? I understand you wanna play these games before launch but please get off their balls. How can you be against more options?

I have no problem at all with matchmaking, in fact I encourage it to help those who jsut want to join a game. It should have both though.

This will mean there are no mods for MW2, just how they want it so they can sell DLC of course, and servers will most likely be laggy, especially if your not in the US.

Would you rather run off somebodies home internet connection, off what may be a below average PC, or would you rather play off a dedicated server, plugged straight into the network backbone with much higher uploads.

There are alot of people canceling their preorders over this, I am one of them. While I am not terribly hopeful that this will fix MW2, it should send a strong message to other developers, so that this does not happen more often.

By all means, include your matchmaking system, but give us our dedicated servers too.

CantFaketheFunk:This is because you are a PC gamer, and you are accustomed to doing these things. You (and I) are hardwired to do these things, just as we are hardwired to moving with a mouse and keyboard as intuitively as, say, walking.

It's still a pretty massive obstacle when it comes to accessibility.

Maybe the server filter options should be always available, not hidden behind a drop-down menu and it should use more plain words instead of "jargon"?

I'm not really sure how you get around this sort of thing, really. I mean, the Xbox, PS3, Macintosh, Linux and PC communities all have things that "outsiders" would never understand.

I completely agree with what you said. Newbies find it hard to grasp the current day servers. I tried to teach my dad how to use Battlefield 2 online. Needless to say, he never really got the hang of it.

So, what, we should tailor everything and anything for the Newbies and give the people who know what they're doing a giant middle finger? Just boil everything down to the lowest common denominator? There's absolutely no reason the game can't have both an easy quick join and a proper server list, and frankly if you never bother trying to learn the complex way (never mind if it isn't even available), you never really learn how to actually use a PC. Trying to figure something hard out isn't bad for you, it's good for you, it forces you to think and understand.But I digress, there's no reason not to have both, and giving your target audience the metaphorical finger is kind of a bad business strategy.

CantFaketheFunk: I could understand the furor over the lack of mods, since mods are always fun, but - of all things - complaining because we're not using traditional server technology? Are all FPS games going to have to have a server browser from now until the end of time? What happens when genuinely better tech comes along?

If a better tech comes along then i will use that, but being thrown into a random server without begin allowed to pick what map and what server i want to play on is not better tech as far as i am concerned.

CantFaketheFunk:Let's face the music, PC gamers: Server browsers are usually clunky and unintuitive.

Wait what? What about STEAM/source games? It takes me like 30 seconds to find a decent server and start playing on a map and a server that looks interesting to me.

CantFaketheFunk: In trying to teach a (non-PC-gaming) friend how to play TF2, the first twenty or so minutes were just spent on how to sort through and select a server.

His failure to do something as simple as selecting a server and clicking the JOIN button is not my concern.

CantFaketheFunk: I know that we PC gamers like to think of ourselves as an exclusive little club of special kids who hold high reign above those console lowlifes, but really? Are people really complaining about a more easily accessible game with modern matchmaking technology?

Again, it's beyond me how people are willing to thrown away the option to decide what server and what map to play on in order to avoid having to spend extra 12-30 seconds finding a server to play on. It's like saying that it's better to have only a single TV channel on your TV then many because that way you never have to change the channels to find something you like thus saving precious time.

CantFaketheFunk: In the end, though, this is just sound and fury, signifying nothing. Infinity Ward will probably not be swayed, Modern Warfare 2 will come out as planned, everyone who hemmed and hawed over this will still buy the game (though they'll still complain) and it will sell a hojillion bazillion copies.

tehroc:If you cant figure out how to use a server browser or sort a list you have no reason even using a computer. If you cant do either of these you are computer illiterate and need to go take classes. You are more likely prone to doing more harm to the computer then good and should go pick up a console controller where you can do no damage.

Why are the editors around here such apologists to these corporations? I understand you wanna play these games before launch but please get off their balls

I don't really have any interest in MW2. I just think that this much fury over this sort of thing is frankly idiotic.

And despite being a PC gamer myself, PC gamer elitism (and refusing to acknowledge that things that come naturally to us are unintuitive to people who are perfectly computer literate otherwise) really gets under my skin ;)

I rather prefer the server option. Gives options to play on the servers I want, which usually involves a specific community or map rotation or whatnot. The fact they left it out is both arbitary and stupid, it's not justified in any way other that "The console players complained".

tehroc:If you cant figure out how to use a server browser or sort a list you have no reason even using a computer. If you cant do either of these you are computer illiterate and need to go take classes. You are more likely prone to doing more harm to the computer then good and should go pick up a console controller where you can do no damage.

Its funny...I'll admit, the first time I played a pc game online, there were a few things I wasn't sure of....but figuring out the rules of the gametype I chose proved more difficult than logging into a server...

Zac_Dai:If you can't use a server browser you probably shouldn't even be using a PC.

And responses like this is why it's very, very hard to feel sorry for PC gamers. I gave up trying when they start trying to tell me that console gaming is a "second-rate experience". Rather have twelve-year old screechers than elitist cunts, myself.

You just click the filters for locked games, full games and high-ping games and press search, how hard is it to do that?

This is because you are a PC gamer, and you are accustomed to doing these things. You (and I) are hardwired to do these things, just as we are hardwired to moving with a mouse and keyboard as intuitively as, say, walking.

It's still a pretty massive obstacle when it comes to accessibility.

Seriously. It's all about this. If I'd never played a FPS before, would you expect me to know what ping is? Why is more of it a good thing? Why are you calling me a "noob"? Why is noone helping me? Well, I guess I won't bother with this, I'll go back and not help fund more games.

Also, I've just had a thought - if Console gamers had to put up withthe quagmire of server selection, we'd be told to suck it up and deal with it. Why is it not OK to do it the other way round?

I just got my PC a year ago. It took me one minute to figure out what all the different numbers meant. I just asked a friend. For those who don't know what ping is I have a simple answer. The lower the number the less lag you get I.E. enemies are more likely to be where you see them.

Baggie:I rather prefer the server option. Gives options to play on the servers I want, which usually involves a specific community or map rotation or whatnot. The fact they left it out is both arbitary and stupid, it's not justified in any way other that "The console players complained".

Zac_Dai:If you can't use a server browser you probably shouldn't even be using a PC.

And responses like this is why it's very, very hard to feel sorry for PC gamers. I gave up trying when they start trying to tell me that console gaming is a "second-rate experience". Rather have twelve-year old screechers that elitist cunts, myself.

Also, Funk, man... You da Preacha! You tells it like it is!

No Funk tells it like a fanboy wants to hear it.

I'm a console gamer too, even before I played PC games. I don't possess some huge IQ so the fact that I can work out how a server browser works tells me the majority of the gaming population can too.

See with a server browser and player dedicated servers I can choose servers that have admins which kick twelve-year old screechers or even "elitist cunts". Even better than that I can choose servers that run mods or different rule-sets thus hugely extending the life of an online game. I could even form my own gaming community and we can set up our on server so we have somewhere to play with friends and like minded people.

This is called having a choice.

Instead we get a match-making system, which will no doubt suck as badly as every other match-making system ever.

tehroc:If you cant figure out how to use a server browser or sort a list you have no reason even using a computer. If you cant do either of these you are computer illiterate and need to go take classes. You are more likely prone to doing more harm to the computer then good and should go pick up a console controller where you can do no damage.

Why are the editors around here such apologists to these corporations? I understand you wanna play these games before launch but please get off their balls

I don't really have any interest in MW2. I just think that this much fury over this sort of thing is frankly idiotic.

And despite being a PC gamer myself, PC gamer elitism (and refusing to acknowledge that things that come naturally to us are unintuitive to people who are perfectly computer literate otherwise) really gets under my skin ;)

Is it elitism though?

I mean, why shouldn't we have it when we've had it before and it works better?

It's not the end of the world (I signed and I probably won't play online all that much), but if making things equal means a large sect of people are held back unnecessarily then it should be fought.

Hrm, when I first started PC gaming, Is was afraid trying multiplayer would be a complecated mess. I tenitivally click on one of the servers that popped up...

And then I clicked 'join'...

And then I was in the game.

But seriously, that sucks, I know there's a number of clan servers that I enjoy playing on very much that were planning on setting up new servers as soon as MW2 went live. Also a lot of people I liked playing with, *poof* they're gone.

Not to mention that lack of flexibilty in choosing what type of game you want, every game I've played with automatic matchmaking has been a bland, lifeless mess.

I can understand wanting to add a "quick match" functionality, but removing the server lists? What the FF?